But while the World Cup might be popular, so far the sponsors aren’t exactly rocking it. On average, the shares of the 10 sponsors are up 0.1% since the start of the soccer tournament, roughly in line with the 0.1% decline of the Vanguard Total World Stock Index.

There’s definitely some companies that have seen their stocks jump much more than others since the start of the Cup. Hyundai Motor is the biggest winner, jumping 2.5%. But four of the 10 publicly traded sponsors’ shares are down, led by Johnson & Johnson, which has skidded 1.6%.

Company

Symbol

% ch. since Cup started

Hyundai Motor

KOSE:A005380

2.5%

Sony

SNE

1.3%

McDonald’s

MCD

0.9%

Adidas

DB:ADS

0.3%

BP

LSE:BP.

0%

Coca-Cola

KO

0%

Visa

V

-0.4%

Anheuser-Busch InBev

ENXTBR:ABI

-0.7%

Continental

DB:CON

-0.9%

Johnson & Johnson

JNJ

-0.1%

Source: S&P Capital IQ, USA TODAY research

It’s still very early in the games to know which sponsors might see the biggest benefits. Additionally, much of the benefit of sponsoring athletic events is the long-term name-brand recognition that will be measured in years, not days.

Yet, these short-term results are in-line with the typical reaction to athletic event sponsorship. A study of past World Cups, including in 1998, 2002 and 2006, found that “sports sponsorship is one of the best ways to build a communication path toward consumers,” according to author Jin-Woo Kim of the University of Texas at Arlington in the report.

But Kim finds that the benefits aren’t spread evenly. Sponsors that sell products that are directly connected with the sport might possibly be the biggest winners, the report found.